


Flames Flickered Green

by audreyoctopus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Battle of Hogwarts, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Pre-Battle of Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25203415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyoctopus/pseuds/audreyoctopus
Summary: Andromeda doesn't want her daughter to go to the Battle of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, once Dora has set her mind on something, there's no turning back.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Flames Flickered Green

Tonks paced around the room, again and again, around and around, rocking Teddy in her arms and looking anxiously from her watch to the window, not exactly knowing what either of them would tell her but hoping, regardless, that they would tell her _something._

Andromeda watched her from the armchair, the firelight casting a strange orange glow over her face. “Do sit down, dear. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Don’t say that, Mum, we don’t know that he’s fine,” Tonks snapped. Teddy snuffled and she hugged him to her chest, tucking his little arms back into the knitted yellow blanket Molly Weasley had arrived with not long after he was born. “I’m sorry, Mum. I’m just… I can’t stand it.”

“Can’t stand what, Dora?” Andromeda asked, even though she knew perfectly well what her daughter couldn’t stand. Dora’s brow was rumpled up worriedly.

Tonks ran her hand through her hair, which she hadn’t noticed had gone to a stormy blue in her worry. “I can’t stand being here, not knowing anything. I have to go, Mum, I have to be with him.”

“Dora, you can’t! You’ve just given birth!”

“It was days ago, Mum, I’m not even that sore anymore.”

“I can’t let you go, Dora,” Andromeda said worriedly, a lump rising in her throat. Something in her gut was telling her ‘ _do not let her go. Do NOT let her go.’_ She had never ignored her instincts as a mother before, and she didn’t intend to this time, either.

“Mum, I have to. I’m an Auror. I’m a Hufflepuff. And neither Aurors nor Hufflepuffs stand around while their people are in danger.” There was a noise at the window, and Tonks quickly turned, hoping to see an owl. But it had only been the wind.

“Think of your son, Nymphadora. You can’t abandon your son,” Andromeda cried in desperation, knowing immediately after the words had left her mouth that they had been the wrong words. Dora’s hair went flaming red and she whirled around in fury.

“Abandon him? _Abandon_ him, Mum? So did Remus abandon him too? Did Dad abandon us?”

“Dora, I- “

She was yelling now. “No! Mum, this is war! And in wars, you fight. I would never abandon my son. How dare you even suggest that I would?”

Sensing the tension, Teddy started to cry, and so did the two witches, both unable to hold in their tears any longer.

“Oh, Dora, I’m sorry. Of course I didn’t mean that you would abandon him. I just… oh, my beautiful girl. I don’t want you to get hurt. What if something happens to you, or to Remus, or to both of you? What if Teddy ends up like Harry Potter?”

“Teddy will never go through what Harry did. He has you. Anyway, Mum, I have no intention of dying tonight.” She scoffed. “It’ll take more than a couple of evil troll-fuckers to take the two of us down, I promise you that.”

Despite herself, Andromeda laughed, even though the tears pouring down her face were constant and un-ending. “If you go, Dora, promise me one thing.”

“Yes, Mum?”

“Promise that you’ll protect yourself. Don’t go hunting anyone down,” at this, Dora’s eyes flashed, and Andromeda knew that there was more than one person her daughter would love to hunt down, “and promise that above anyone else, you’ll look after yourself. Not Remus. Not Ginny. Not Harry. Please, Dora?”

“I can’t promise you that, Mum,” Dora said softly, and although she had hoped, Andromeda knew it was the truth. “I promise that I’ll protect myself. But I will protect others, too. I have to.”

“I know,” whispered Andromeda. She thought that her heart might be breaking.

“I love you, Mum. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“I love you too, Dora. So much.”

“Mum, if I-“ she hesitated. “If something _does_ go wrong, you tell Teddy every day how much his parents love him. You tell him what happened, and you tell him why we had to fight. Please, Mum.”

“Dora…”

“We’re fighting for him, Mum. Please tell him about the war, when he’s old enough.”

“Tell him yourself, Dora,” Andromeda said fiercely. “You come home, and you tell him yourself.”

“I will. But if something goes wrong, I need you to tell him for me. Please, Mum?”

Andromeda sighed, and put her head in her hands for a moment. She stood up and clasped the arm of the chair so tightly that her knuckles went white, and her wedding ring (that she refused to take off) dug sharply into her skin. “I will. I’ll tell him.”

Tonks looked down at her son, now sleeping. She ran her hand gently across his head, his hair a bright turquoise. She kissed his little nose, still too small to tell whether it was more like hers or like Remus’ yet. She kissed his rosy cheeks, his fuzzy forehead. Tonks wanted to memorise her baby. She wanted to stay, and watch him grow. But she knew there was no time, and handed him to her mother, even though every single bone in her body was telling her to hold onto him forever and never let him go. “Here.”

Andromeda took him wordlessly, and embraced her daughter, holding her close, stroking her hair. She didn’t want to let her leave – she knew, somehow, that when her daughter left this room, it would be the last time she ever did. It was different to letting Ted leave. With Ted, she had half-expected him to walk through the door at any moment. She hadn’t known that she would lose him, when she let him go.

But she knew now. And somehow, she knew that when she let her daughter go, she would never see her again alive.

“I love you,” Andromeda said again, not quite knowing what else to say.

Her daughter smiled at her, tears spilling over. “I love you too. So much.”

Dora kissed Teddy’s forehead again, whispering something in his ear, so soft that Andromeda couldn’t hear it even though they were all so close together. Teddy’s eyes opened, and he stared at his mother, grabbing onto her finger. He didn’t want her to leave either.

Tonks let out a choked sob, and she gently removed Teddy’s tiny fingers from her own, kissing them before placing his little hand onto his chest. He started to scream.

Tonks grabbed a pinch of Floo powder, and stood in the fireplace, her eyes moving from her mother to Teddy. “The Hog’s Head,” she said, her voice clear and strong.

In the split second before the flames flickered green, Andromeda’s eyes met her daughter’s and they smiled sadly at each other. And then the fireplace was empty, and Andromeda could only cry, and hold Teddy close to her.

“I know, my darling, I know,” she whispered to him as he wailed, and she didn’t know what else she could do but hold him close and wail with him.


End file.
